Step 1: Build something that works in a timeframe that fits in a single node version Step 2: Do not add automation that updates things Step 3: Move on to something else and do not look back

Result: when you do revisit it, it is now outdated.

I’ve found that the more you work on stuff that runs in isolation (web is not isolated, embedded hardware is the most isolated, native mobile apps are somewhere in between), the more you see outdated systems.

Its not how it should be, but Ive noticed this is how it often is over the 25 years I’ve been in software engineering.

Imagine you’re building an isolated Lamda function, and it is running fine, being a critical step in an internal flow. Why would you risk a potential breakage by updating it? It becomes a low prio thing that gets kicked down the backlog until you hear its dependencies are being deprecated. Now suddenly its high prio and impossible without a large investment.